Cooling device for workpieces,such as rod bundles



J. R. ADAIR COOLING DEVICE FOR WORKPIECES,

Filed MaIOh l5, 1967 3,442,029 SUCH As ROD BUNDLES May 6, 1969 I of2Sheetv J. R. ADAIR 3,442,029

Sheet of 2 COOLING DEVICE FOR WORKPIECES, SUCH AS ROD BUNDLES May 6,1969 Filed March 15,.'1967 a, -ww Nlww Nm r QON Eff/ im m 1 |11. mm

mum,

United States Patent Office 3,442,029 Patented May 6, 1969 U.S. 'Cl.34-105 9 'Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present inventionrelates to an improvement in cooling heated workpieces and, moreparticularly, to a device for the controlled cooling of elongatedworkpieces, such as hot rods and bars immediately after they issue froma rolling mill.

The desirability of providing a procedure and apparatus for controlcooling heated rods or bars issuing from a rolling mill, either prior tothe cooling thereof or irnmediately thereafter, has been well recognizedin the art. The heated workpieces may possess a temperature of 1,900 F.as they issue from the rolling mill. In this regard in order to obtainsuperior metallurgical characteristics and optimum surface scalecondition, it is desired to rapidly cool in a controlled manner t-heworkpieces to a temperature of approximately 1,300 F. The realization ofsuch an objective becomes extremely difcult in dealing with very highspeed, extremely high tonnage mills, for example, in providing for suchcoolant for a rod mill wherein the issuing speed of the rod may exceed7,200 feet per minute and wherein the mill may roll three strandssimultaneously. To date there has not been developed an economic andefficient method and device for meeting the cooling requirements.

The present invention provides an apparatus designed to successfullyhandle rapidly produced bundles of rods, bars or the like from ahigh-speed, high-production rolling mill and control cool the bundles ina manner that will both satisfy the high output rate of the mill andassure the required cooling.

In one of its aspects the present invention provides a continuousconveyor, intermittently driven, arranged to cooperate with the layingor pouring reels of a rod or bar mill, onto which conveyor the yformedbundles are transferred, and wherein during advancement by the conveyorthe bundles are enclosed and subject to continuous cooling medium untildischarged from the conveyor, the construction being such that eachheated bundle can be cooled as long as necessary without inter teringwith the production of the mill and at the same time the conveyor isalways free to receive new bundles from the reels.

More particularly, there is provided in sequence a rod coiling station,a rod bundle cooling station, and a rod bundle discharge station, saidrod coiling station including means for forming bundles of rods and thelike issuing from a rolling mill, means for moving the bundles once theyhave been formed to a first position, means for transferring the formedbundles from the first position to said rod bundle cooling station,including a conveyor arranged to one side of the bundle forming means,said conveyor constituting a continuous conveyor made up of a number ofindividual cars each including a coil receiving platform, each coilreceiving platform also adapted to support a cover for a bundle, meansfor engaging said covers at a position in front of the bundle formingmeans to position the covers over the bundle forming means so that acoil removed from the bundle forming means can be positioned in saidcover, said bundle and cover being transferrable to the conveyor, meansfor intermittently advancing said conveyor so as to position one of itscars in a position to receive bundles formed by said bundle formingmeans, openings in said platforms communicating with first passageways,formed in said cars, a central cooling medium passageway encircled bysaid conveyor, said central passageway having a plurality of secondpassageways communicating with each of said first passageways of saidcars, means for delivering force cooling liuid into said centralpassageway to cool the bundle while supported by said cars, saiddischarge station arranged adjacent a portion of said conveyor ofcooling station, means for engaging said cover when in said dischargestation to remove said cover and its supporting bundle onto a dischargeconveyor, means for removing said cover from said bundle, so that thebundle may be advanced away from said conveyor when in said dischargestation, said discharge conveyor adapted to receive bundles from saidconveyor of said cooling station after which said cover can be againplaced on its associated car and conveyed to said coiling station.

These objects and advantages, as well as others, will be more evidentfrom the following description of one embodiment of the presentinvention, when read along with the accompanying drawings of which:

FIGURE 1 is a plan view of rod coiling, cooling, and discharge stationsincorporating the features of the present invention,

FIGURE 2 is a sectional view taken on lines II-II of FIGURE l,

FIGURE 3 is a sectional view taken on lines III--III of FIGURE l, and

FIGURE 4 is a sectional view taken on lines IV-IV of FIGURE l.

With reference to the drawings, and particularly to FIGURE l, theillustrated equipment, for convenience of description, is divided intothree areas. The first area is defined as the bundle coiling station,the second the bundle cooling station, and the third the bundledischarge station, the drawing being accordingly marked for easyidentification.

With reference to the coiling station there is provided two -rod coilingapparatus 10 and 11 which conform to well-known construction, and forwhich reason a detailed description thereof is not deemed necessary. Atypical example of such coilers is shown in U.S. Patent 2,595,006 whichissued to I. W. Sheperdson on Apr. 29, 1952. FIG- URE 2 shows the bottomplatform 12 of one of the coilers which is connected to a centralactuating rod 13, upward displacement of which rod raises a rod bundlefrom within the coiler to an upper elevation, which position isillustrated in FIGURE 2. On one side of the coiling station there isarranged a continuous-type conveyor 14, intermittently driven, whichmakes up an essential part of the cooling station.

As FIGURE 2 indicates, the conveyor 14 is comprised of a number ofindividual cars 15 which, as shown in FIGURE 3, each comprise two pairof wheels 16 and 17 which are received on parallel tracks 18, the carsbeing pivotally connected together by links 19, shown in FIGURE 1. Theupper portions of the cars 15 are provided with horizontal platforms 21which it will be noted are in the same elevation as the extreme upperposition of the platform 12 of the rod coilers 10 and 11.

In still referring to FIGURE 2, it will be noted that the platforms 21of the cars are made of such a width as to receive rod bundles shown inoutline form and identified with the capital letter B and outwardthereof to -receive and support covers 22. It will be appreciated thateach car is provided with one of these covers, the covers being tubularin form and are provided with annular lips 23 and 24, having channelportions, the purpose for which will be explained later. The covers 22are portable to the extent that they are readily transportable from thecars 15 to a position over the coilers 10 and 11, in which position theyare adapted to be carried 4by a platform 28 which is provided withopenings sufficient to allow the platform 12 of the coiler, togetherwith rod bundles, to pass. Two covers 22 are advanced from two of thecars 15 when the cars are positioned in front of the coiling station toa position over the rod coilers by individual rams 31 and 32, the ramscomprising horizontally extended beams 33 which are slidably supportedin uprights 34, the lower surface of the rams, although not shown, beingprovided with racks which engage pinions, also not shown, the pinionsbeing driven by shafts 35 to which are connected individual gearreduction motor sets 36. As best shown in FIGURE 1, the rams 31 and 32have at their end adjacent the coilers and 11 bundle pushing elements 38which are of suicient size to engage the covers 22 to push the coversfrom the coiling station to the cooling station, and more particularly,from the platforms 12 over the platform 28 onto the platforms 21 of thecars 15. The rams 31 and 32 also are provided with pivotal hooks 39 toeach of which there is connected piston cylinder assemblies 41, thehooks being so arranged relative to the lower channels 24 of the covers22 so as to enter into the channels and on the retraction of the rams 31and 32, the covers will be moved from the cars onto the platform 28.

Turning to the cars 15, as shown in FIGURE 1, towards the bottom of thedrawing there is indicated in a broken-away section a plan of one of theplatforms 21 in which it will be observed that there is provided agrated opening 42, the opening communicating with a passageway 43 formedbelow the platforms 21 which extend towards the center of the conveyor14, the conveyor being formed with a central opening which actuallyforms a central conduit 44 which runs approximately the full length ofthe conveyor and has a series of opposed openings 45 and 46 which are inthe same elevation and communicate with the passageway 43 of the car 15.The opening or conduit 44 is adapted to receive a controlled amount ofuid, such as air, water or atomized air from a fan 47 which is driven byan electrical motor 48.

As noted previously, the conveyor 14 is driven intermittently so as toregister a car in front of each of the two coilers 10 and 11 for whichpurpose there is provided a motor-gear drive 49 shown also only in FIG-URE 1.

Turning now to the covers 22 and, particularly FIGURE 2, it will benoted that each cover is provided with a fluid deflecting plate 51 whichis slidably mounted on a central shaft 52 adapted to move substantiallythe full distance of the shaft from a place at the bottom of the cover,which is shown in phantom in FIGURE 2, to the top thereof, as shown infull lines in the .same ligure. The plate 51 is urged towards the bottomby either a counterweight or a spring so that as the bundle is raisedout of the coiler, its upp'er surface engages the plate 51 and the platewill come to rest on top of the bundle. The purpose of the plate 51 isto prevent the uid issuing from the bottom of the car from passingdirectly up through the center of a coil, but instead causes the fluidto pass Aradially through the coil after which it passes up through anopening 53 provided in the top of the cover 22.

Turning now to the coil discharge station and to FIGURES 1 and 4, itwill 'be first noted that there is provided a second intermittentlydriven conveyor 56, the purpose of which is to take away the cooledbundles from the cooling station. The bundles and covers, oncepositioned adjacent the Conveyor 56, as shown in FIG- URE l, are adaptedto be readily removed from the conveyor 14 and transferred to theconveyor 56y by a reciprocating ram 57, arranged essentially in the sameelevation as the platforms 21 of the cars 15 and the conveyor 56.

The ram 57, as the rams 31 and 32, are provided with cover pusherelements 58 and a hook 59 identical in construction and function to thesimilar components of the pusher rams 31 and 32. The hook 59 thus isadapted to engage the lower channel 24 of the cover and remove thechannel together with the encircled bundle from the platform 21 of oneof the cars 15 to the conveyor 56. Once on the conveyor 56, as shown inFIGURE 4, the cover is adapted to be lifted vertically off of the bundleso as to free the bundle to be moved away by the conveyor 56. The cover22 is raised from the bundle by means of a vertical displaceable arm 61which is connected to a vertical shaft 62, the shaft being verticallyreceived in a standard 63, the lower end of the shaft being connected toa piston cylinder assembly 64 which raises the arm 61, the arm beingprovided with projections 65 which engage the channels of the cover 22through which means the cover is raised off the bundle.

Before briefly describing the operation of the disclosed embodiment ofthe present invention, it should be emphasized that the length of theconveyor 14 is to a great extent a function of the required cooling timenecessary to cool the bundles from the time they are transferred fromthe coilers 10 and 11 until the time they are discharged onto thedischarged conveyor 56. Its length is also a function of the productioncapacity of the rod mill. Thus, it will be appreciated that should morecooling time be required, or a greater bundle capacity be foundnecessary, these conditions can be simply met by varying the length ofthe conveyor 14 to suit the particular condition.

Turning now to a brief description of the operation of the variouscomponents above described, it will be assumed that a bundle B has beenformed in the coiler 11 and that the platform 12 of the coiler has beenraised to position the bundle in line with the platform 28, the conveyor14 being synchronized relative to the elevation of the bundle so as toposition a car 15 in front of the coiler 11, thereby allowing onoperation of the ram 33 a cover 22 t0 be positioned above the coilerprior to the bundle being raised out of the coiler. Once this occurs theram 32 will be operated to transfer the cover 22 together with thebundle to the waiting car 15. Once the bundle is so transferred, andimmediately upon being received by the platform 21 of the car, the coilwill be subject to the cooling, as previously noted. It should be notedhere that the cover plate 51 will engage the top of the bundle as Soonas it has been raised into the cover and when the coil was transferredto the car, the plate will cause the uid to pass radially out throughthe bundle and prevent it from passing up through the center thereof.Once the cover is placed back on the car 15, the conveyor can beoperated to bring into position a subsequent car for receiving the nextbundle. The bundle just described as being transferred from the coiler11 then will be succeedingly moved around the conveyor 14 during whichtime it will be continuously cooled at a controlled rate suicient toreduce its temperature to the required low level to obtain the desiredmetallurgical characteristics. This will bring the bundle B to thedischarge station, and the conveyor will be automatically stopped toregister the car 15 in front of the conveyor 56 and allow the ram 57 toengage the cover 22 and transfer the cover and bundle onto the conveyor56. At this time the cover will be raised by operation of the pistoncylinder 64 which will cause the arm 61 to engage the cover and lift itoff the bundle so that the conveyor 56 can be operated to convey thebundle away. Once this occurs, the cover is again lowered down onto theconveyor 56, and the ram 57 again operated to push the cover back ontothe car 15 and the car can be advanced to the cooling station.

It will be appreciated that various other forms of the present inventioncan be utilized without departing from its scope and that the inventioncan be employed to cool other products other than hot rods and bars.

In accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes, I haveexplained the principle and operation of my invention and haveillustrated and described what I consider to represent the bestembodiment thereof. However, I desire to have it understood that withinthe scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practicedotherwise than as specifically illustrated and described.

I claim:

1. In an arrangement for processing metallic workpieces comprising inoperative sequence:

a heated workpiece coil forming station,

a coil cooling station, and

a coil discharge station,

said workpiece coil forming station including a pair of separate meansfor forming coils from heated workpieces issuing to said separate means,

a plurality of covers constructed to be placed over the coils formed bysaid coil forming means, means for transferring a coil and a cover fromsaid coil forming station to said coil cooling station,

said coil cooling station including a continuous closed loop conveyorarranged on a common side of the pair of coil forming means, and havingmeans for supporting a plurality of coils together with their covers andwherein the supporting means passes in an orbital path while supportingcoils,

means for intermittently advancing said conveyor so as to presentaportion of the conveyor in position to receive a coil from said coilforming station,

means for supplying a heat treating medium to said coils while supportedby said conveyor,

said coil discharge station being arranged to have a portion thereofadjacent to said coil cooling conveyor,

means for transferring a coil from said conveyor to said dischargestation, and wherein the length of said conveyor is such that a coiltransferred to it is subject to the necessary heat treatment before itis advanced to the discharge station.

2. In an arrangement for processing metallic workpieces according toclaim 1, wherein said conveyor includes means for supporting saidcovers, Iand wherein the arrangement includes:

means for manipulating a cover over a coil immediately after it has beenformed, and

means for transferring a coil and cover as a unit to said conveyor.

3. In an arrangement for processing metallic workpieces according toclaim 1, wherein said conveyor includes a number of cars, each adaptedto support a single coil, and each having a coil receiving .andsupporting platform,

said platforms being constructed and arranged to receive 6 said coilfrom said coil forming station and to support a cover when enclosing acoil.

4. In an arrangement Ifor processing metallic workpieces according toclaim 3, wherein said conveyor is arnanged to present at least 2 cars infront of said coil forming station and wherein the arrangement includesa separate reciprocatory means for each coil forming means arranged onthe side of the coil forming means opposite said conveyor and having amember for connecting itself to a cover while supported by said conveyorand moving a cover to a superposed position relative to the coil formingmeans.

5. In an arrangement for processing metallic 'workpieces according toclaim 3, wherein the length of the conveyor and the number of cars itcomprises is a function of the number of coil forming means, and thetime required to heat treat a coil from the time it is received by saidconveyor to the time it is conveyed to said discharge station.

6. In an arrangement for processing metallic workpieces according toclaim 3, in which each said platform has an opening communicating with-a first passageway formed in each car:

a primary cooling medium passageway encircled by said conveyor, saidprimary passageway having a plurality of auxiliary passagewayscommunicating with each of said lirst passageways of said cars, and

means for delivering the cooling medium to said primary passageways forcontinuously cooling said coils when supported by said cars.

7. In 'an arrangement for Iprocessing metallic workpieces according toclaim 1, wherein said coil forming means is arranged at a position belowsaid conveyor and each include means for raising a coil after it hasbeen formed to the elevation of said conveyor from where it istransferred to said coil cooling station.

8. In an arrangement for processing metallic workpieces according toclaim 1, wherein each cover includes a cooling medium deflector plate,

means for allowing said plates to be displaced by .a coil when a coil ispositioned within a cover, and wherein the plates prevent the coolingmedium from escaping from one end of a coil enclosed by said cover.

'9. In an arrangement for processing metallic workpieces comprising inoperative sequence:

la heated workpiece coil forming station,

a coil cooling station, and

a coil discharge station,

said workpiece coil forming station including a pair of separate meansfor forming coils from heated Iworkpieces issuing to said separatemeans,

means for transferring coils formed in said coil form-o ing station tosaid coil cooling station,

said coil cooling station including a continuous closed loop conveyorarranged on a common side of the pair of coil forming means, and havingmeans for supporting a plurality of coils and wherein the supportingmeans passes in an orbital path while supporting coils,

means for intermittently advancing said conveyor so as to present aportion of the conveyor in position to receive a coil from said coilforming station,

means for supplying a heat treating medium to said coils while supportedby said conveyor,

said coil discharge station being arranged to have a portion thereofadjacent to said coil cooling conveyor,

means for transferring a coil from said conveyor to said dischargestation, and wherein the length of said conveyor is such that a coiltransferred to it is subject to the necessary heat treatment before itis advanced to the discharge station,

said discharge station includes a discharge conveyor havin-g a portionthereof arranged adjacent said coil cooling conveyor,

means at said discharge station for connecting itself to a cover whenbrought to said discharge station and 7 8 adapted to transfer said coverand enclosed coil as References Cited a unit onto said dischargeconveyor, UNITED STATES PATENTS means for removing said cover from acoil so that the coil can be advanced away from said cooling conveyor 2hgson 3 4 105 by Sald dlschafge ConVeYOf 5 21878382 3/1959 sieger l34-105 means for intermittently advancing said discharge conveyer teeieet movement 0f a eeil Supported thereby, FREDERICK J. MATTESON, JR.,Primary Examiner.

and means for engaging the removed cover to effect a tr'ans- HARRY BfRAMEY Assmmt Examiner' ferring of said cover to an empty car of saidcoil 10 Us. CL XhR. cooling conveyor for retransfer to said coil formingstation. 148-156, 157; 34--236

